Jazz pianists Aaron Diehl and Adam Birnbaum share the stage for the first time in New York with original music and arrangements for our celebrated Jazz Finale of the Chelsea Music Festival. Sit back and enjoy takes on Beethoven, Telemann as well as a musical encounter between Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin.

*ALL EVENTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

From the sun dial to the metronome to a photograph, humans have tried to finds ways to measure and capture time. In addition to enjoying live music, art and cooking, children and their parents are invited to learn with our 2017 Visual Artist-in-Residence, filmmaker Jonathan Rattner, how to explore their ideas and questions about time through the lens of a camera.

The Festival’s annual Carte Blanche event allows the 2017 Ensemble-in-Residence full artistic freedom in creating a program that highlights its reflection on the Festival theme, “Measuring Time.”

At the center of the program is the World Premiere performance of a string quartet from Etudes & Lullabies by Composer-in-Residence Sebastian Currier, commissioned by the Chelsea Music Festival as part of a world-wide, multi-year commissioning project. The string quartets of Maurice Ravel and Ludwig van Beethoven that flank the premiere, are milestones in the string quartet repertoire composed at opposite ends of the 19th century.

FESTIVAL TALKS IIIAnticipation and Timing— Where the Neuroscience of Cognition and Aesthetics Meet

Time-sense is the foundation of rhythm, causal inference, and memory. Dr. Shadlen will share insights from neuroscience about sensing and reproducing short intervals of time, like the beats of Beethoven’s metronome. The brain’s ability to free itself from the immediacy of sensation and action holds the key to thought, planning, decision making and creativity. Such freedom from immediacy necessitates a mechanism to sense and control time, which the brain achieves through anticipation. It is anticipation of time and other regularities that establishes the connection between cognition and aesthetic expression/appreciation…and perhaps why a metronome marking might meander.

This evening’s screening of recent short films by award-winning filmmaker and this year's Visual Artist-in-Residence, Jonathan Rattner, includes Rattner's most recent film, The Interior, which just won the Michael Moore Award for best documentary at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Begin the night with a pre-screening talk from the artist and stay to join him in conversation about his usage of film to create poignant contemplations on the nature of time.

The Festival is launching its first-ever Chelsea Gallery Walking Tour! Join us for an afternoon guided tour of galleries including David Zwirner Gallery and Galerie Lelong — exploring exhibitions of painting, installation and conceptual art that delve into ways visual art can “measure” time. The tour starts at the James Beard Award-nominated Corkbuzz in Chelsea Market and ends at C24 Gallery with a light reception and performance from Festival musicians.

The tour will be led by this year's Visual Artist-in-Residence, Jonathan Rattner.

This evening’s event will include a panel and performance of Beethoven’s beloved Spring Sonata, John Cage’s Four for string quartet and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite arranged for piano trio by the pianist Stephen Prutsman. Artistic Directors Ken-David & Melinda Lee Masur will lead a panel to include visual artists from the Measuring Time exhibit, Festival Lecturer Jan Caeyers and Festival musicians exploring how time and story are transported through music.

ART EXHIBITION

Artwork by Bill Beirne, Alexander Hahn, Harry Newman, Regula Rüegg, Silvelin von Scanzoni, and Ursula Schneider are featured in Deutsches Haus Arts and Friends: Measuring Time exhibition. Curated in conversation with this year’s Festival theme, the art explores various angles of “measuring time” including rhythm, memory, decay, waiting and aging.

FESTIVAL TALKS II

Panel with Regula Rüegg, curator of the “Measuring Time” art exhibit, Beethoven scholar Jan Caeyers and Festival musicians exploring how time and story are transported through music. Led by Artistic Directors Melinda Lee Masur and Ken-David Masur

Held on the beautiful grounds of the General Theological Seminary, this evening’s concert features works that explore the communicative spectrum of four protagonists in dialogue with one another and their surrounding. The program features a string quartet by 2017 Festival Composer-in-Residence Sebastian Currier performed by the Verona Quartet, Telemann’s striking concerto for four violins and orchestra and concludes with four violin virtuosos from this year’s Festival leading audiences through the annual passage of time through Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

PROGRAM

Telemann Concerto for 4 Violins in A Major, TWV 54:A1Currier Quiet Time (2004)Vivaldi The Four Seasons

This evening’s concert features works that explore structural and architectural variations, from music to buildings and eventually civilizations, meeting their ultimate purpose. The great Italian composer Corelli is one of hundreds of composers over the centuries to explore the construct of the famous 16 measures of La Folia. In an arrangement by legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler, Austrian rising star Filip Pogády will open this evening’s program. Sebastian Currier’s Next Atlantis mixes recorded sounds of water with sound waves of a string quartet in tandem with visually striking videography by collaborative artist Pawel Wojtasik. The evening concludes with one of Olivier Messiaen’s defining compositions based on the Book of Revelation entitled “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” or Quartet for the End of Time.

6:00— Private Art Viewing

6:30— Musical Performance with Reception to follow

ART EXHIBITION

Landscapes— an exhibition of photographs by Giuseppe Di Piazza, more info here.Catch this exhibition before it closes June 16th!

PROGRAM

Corelli/Kreisler La Foliafor violin and pianoCurrier Next Atlantis (2008)MessiaenQuartet for the End of Time

Helen Sung and her special guests present her original takes on Telemann, Beethoven and Time this evening. Helen writes:For musicians of all genres, time is a key element, affecting every part of the musical experience - tempo, pacing, energy, mood, momentum, etc. Jazz musicians think a lot about "time" in terms of the groove (swing), and as a classical pianist who transitioned to Jazz, practicing with a metronome was a big part of how I learned to swing. I'm excited to explore Beethoven through my now more seasoned Jazz perspective - to share my personal take on Beethoven's "groove."

Ludwig van Beethoven’s impact on all of our lives, regardless of background, is tremendous. From descriptors such as “revolutionary,” “romantic” or “madman,” his life and music continue to fascinate, puzzle and mesmerize those who encounter it. This evening, from 6pm until midnight, experience a multi-faceted exploration on Beethoven. Through music, food, visual art and talks, we focus on his obsession with the metronome and mission to understand the pulse of time.

DINNER

This special pre-concert dinner is a Festival first and an exclusive chance for audiences to encounter two remarkable figures in the culinary world. Chelsea Music Festival favorite and 2012 Culinary Artist-in-Residence Chef Lance Nitahara will prepare with his students from the Culinary Institute of America a three-course sit-down dinner based on the theme of Time. Food artists and this year's Culinary Artist-in-Residence, Allie Wist, will also speak to our dining guests about the concept of time in food history. Bon Appétit!

FESTIVAL TALKS

Beethoven's Impact on Keeping Time

A lecture and panel discussion presented in partnership with the Beethoven-Haus Bonn and featuring the first appearance to New York audiences of celebrated Beethoven-scholar Jan Caeyers. The first in our popular Festival Talks series will give insight into Beethoven’s world and his encounters during the dawn of the metronome.

A 25-minute lecture will be followed by a 25-minute panel discussion with an esteemed panel of artists that will include 2017 Festival Composer-in-Residence Sebastian Currier, American violin-piano duo Nicholas DiEugenio and Mimi Solomon, Jazz pianist and composer Helen Sung, Festival Artistic Directors Ken-David & Melinda Lee Masur as well as members of the Verona Quartet.

Build one of Beethoven’s metronomes, hear his music come to life, taste a favorite treat of his! In this year’s first Festival Family Event discover Ludwig van Beethoven and his search of joy through music. Together with Festival musicians, artists and chefs, come and explore Beethoven’s journey to capture the pulse of time through his fascination with music, sound and the metronome!

Sponsored by BMW North America, Official Vehicle of the 2017 Chelsea Music Festival

The 2017 Festival Opening Night Gala kicks off this year’s exploration of the theme "Measuring Time" with music celebrating the 250th anniversary of Telemann, Ludwig van Beethoven’s relationship with the metronome, and Clockwork by this year’s Composer-in-Residence Sebastian Currier. The Gala will come to a thrilling end with 2017 Festival Ensemble-in-Residence, the Verona Quartet, joined by Melinda Lee Masur on piano in a musical journey through the history of time-keeping in Clocks by Miguel del Aguila.